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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25396189">Was That So Hard?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctuaria/pseuds/Sanctuaria'>Sanctuaria</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Celebrating AoS Season 7 (with angst and hurt/comfort) [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Daisy being a little shit, Deathbed Love Confessions, Deke dies but it doesn't stick so it's okay, Dekesy, F/M, Fluff, LemonQuake, Mack just wants to be kept out of it, Remorath Rumble references, Teasing, Time Loop, but he also can't help himself, episode 7x09, everyone on this show has to die at least once or it wouldn’t be AoS, season 7, season 7 spec fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:02:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,052</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25396189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctuaria/pseuds/Sanctuaria</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Well, they didn’t say stupid things while they were dying!” Daisy tells him hotly. </p><p>Deke pales. “Uh…what, uh—I mean, what did I say?”</p><p>She stares at him, unimpressed. “What do you think you said?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Deke Shaw/Skye | Daisy Johnson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Celebrating AoS Season 7 (with angst and hurt/comfort) [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764745</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>fill the daisy/deke tag with actual content 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Was That So Hard?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay, so, this just in: apparently that last one was too depressing and too platonic for my brain to be satisfied so here’s some unplanned romance-fluff. Thanks, 1AM brain. </p><p>(But hey, this week’s ep is probably going to be full of angst and watching our faves die, so maybe we'll actually be thankful for the lightness of this later.)</p><p>Didn't tag this 'Major Character Death' because he's fine in the end, but Deke does die (and it is described in full, though not graphic) at the beginning of this, FYI.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Deke!” Daisy shouts, running toward him but too late to stop the bright bolt of electricity that surges out of the console even as he fiddles with it, striking him straight in the right side of his chest. There’s a shout, more of a yelp, really, and Deke falls backward, the stench of burned flesh suddenly in the air.</p><p>“Deke!” She’s by his side in another moment, propping up his head even as his eyelashes flutter, but one look at the charred section the size of a watermelon in his chest tells her he’s not going to make it. Just like Simmons didn’t in the last loop, and Sousa in the loop before that…</p><p>Somehow, the knowledge that he will be okay if the loop resets again like the last seven times doesn’t make the ragged gasps any better, doesn’t dull the pain and panic in his eyes. It doesn’t mean he’s not dying, here and now, with all the pain and fear and suffering that entails. “Deke,” she murmurs, wishing there was something she could do for him.</p><p>“Daisy,” he breathes out, gray eyes—just a few shades paler than Fitz’s blue ones, but with that same fervent intensity as the world crashes and burns around him—locking onto hers. “Daisy—”</p><p>“I’m here,” she assures him, grabbing his hand.</p><p>He gulps, trying to say something else, eyes never leaving hers. “I—I wanted to tell you—”</p><p>She squeezes his hand. “I’m here. I’m listening.”</p><p>His breath rattles in his ruined chest; it’s clear these will be his last moments, that he’s reaching for something profound. “Daisy… You’re really…great.” His mouth opens and closes one more time before he lies still, eyes sightless and unseeing.</p><hr/><p>She spots him in the lab, working at the station Simmons designated for him, and pulls the glass door open. He’s not alone—Mack’s messing with some small electronic on the other side of the room, probably something non-critical now that the time loop’s broken—but she doesn’t let that stop her, striding in and planting her feet only when she’s right behind him. He turns. “Oh, hey, Daisy,” he greets her. “What’s—”</p><p>She smacks him across the face.</p><p>Not <em>hard</em> hard, not hard enough to make her palm sting, not hard enough that May would have called it a smack at all, but—</p><p>“OW!” Deke yelps, pressing his hand to his cheek and staring at her in hurt indignation. Mack takes one look at the two of them and sweeps his tools off his workbench, hastily exiting the room.</p><p>“That’s for dying,” Daisy informs him.</p><p>“Uh, sorry?” he says, before indignation at the smack returns full force. “Hey, wait, I don’t see you slapping Nana or Sousa; they both died too. That’s not fair!”</p><p>“Well, they didn’t say stupid things while they were dying!” Daisy tells him hotly.</p><p>Deke pales. “Uh…what, uh—I mean, what did I say?”</p><p>She stares at him, unimpressed. “What do you think you said?”</p><p>His mouth gapes open and closed like a fish for a moment. Daisy waits, hiding her inner amusement at watching him squirm behind a cool facade. “I…I…” His face falls. “Look, I’m sorry. I know you said you weren’t ready, and I shouldn’t have put that on you no matter how I felt. I’ve kept my feelings to myself—well, mostly—for so long and I never wanted to burden you with something you’re not ready for or something you don’t want in the first place, and I don’t want to be <em>that guy</em>, because <em>that guy</em> sucks. And just because I think you’re smart and pretty and powerful and the person with the biggest heart that I’ve ever met doesn’t give me to impose all of that on you.” He stops for breath. “But also, I was literally <em>dying</em> at the time, so please cut me some slack,” he says. “And I don’t expect anything of you, I promise. I never did. I respect you way too much for that; please believe me.”</p><p>Daisy fights to keep her face stony, remaining silent. May would be proud of her unyielding poker face, if not of the use to which she was currently putting it.</p><p>“<em>What?</em>” Deke demands.</p><p>“You said, and I quote, ‘You’re really…great.’” She finally lets her smirk show. “And then you…” Daisy makes a ‘dying’ motion with her hands.</p><p>He stares at her. “Are you serious?”</p><p>“Uh-huh.”</p><p>Deke jerks his eyes away from her, exploding into a sputter, “Why does dead-Deke have <em>zero</em> game?!?”</p><p>“Oh, come on,” Daisy says, beginning to laugh.</p><p>“—God, Nana wasn’t around to hear that, right? Or Coulson and May? Or <em>Mack</em>? I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Cricket for advice; at least Olga and the Chang Gang—”</p><p>“Deke,” Daisy says, trying to regain his attention. “Shut up.”</p><p>“Gladly, because apparently the twentieth century has made it so I no longer have a way with words!”</p><p>Daisy sighs. “Seriously,” she says with a roll of her eyes, stepping closer and tugging him toward her by the shirt collar. She kisses him, searing and hungry and ignoring the surprised sound in the back of his throat before he kisses her back, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. She nips his bottom lip with her teeth, feeling the roughness of his stubble. She steps back, lifting a challenging eyebrow, and pretends she’s not exactly as breathless as he is. “Was that so hard?”</p><p>She smiles again at his wide-eyed, dumbstruck expression. “Next time try not to wait til you’re dying,” she tells him, turning on her heel and walking out of the lab without a backwards glance. Mack looks up as she passes through into Mission Control, his tools balanced awkwardly on a console as he works.</p><p>“You look…happy,” Mack tells her. He holds up a hand. “No, I don’t want to know; how you mess with Deke or what you do with him is your business. <em>Please</em> keep it your business.”</p><p>“Yes, <em>Director</em>,” Daisy teases.</p><p>“And I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but…” Mack just shakes his head, looking up at the ceiling as if asking for patience, or forgiveness, or mercy. “…If you really want to give him an aneurysm, slap him again and say, ‘What took you so long?’”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Any and all feedback appreciated!! Let's hope we don't all get murdered too much by 7x09 this week. (Bring it on, JedMo and Elizabeth.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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